The confrontation at the breach had been brutal and mercifully brief. When the dust settled and the tear in reality sealed, Lord Nihilum remained standing opposite Reed in the scorched wasteland that had once been the northeastern defensive perimeter of Goblin's Hollow. Between them lay the still-twitching remains of something ancient and terrible—a mass of writhing appendages and eyes that were already dissolving into fetid ichor.
"Impressive," Lord Nihilum said, his voice simultaneously present in Reed's ears and inside his mind. "Few could have contained an Abyssal Harbinger so efficiently."
Reed's obsidian skin rippled with barely contained power, silver veins pulsing like lightning beneath storm clouds. "You breached a Netherlock in my domain as a test." It wasn't a question.
"The Council required proof of your capabilities." Lord Nihilum's form seemed to absorb the ambient light around him. "They debate endlessly. I prefer direct evidence."
